The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Referring now to FIGS. 1A-1D, different types of wireless networks are shown. The networks shown in FIGS. 1A-1C comply with one or more 802.11 standards developed by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The network shown in FIG. 1D complies with a WiFi Direct peer-to-peer (P2P) standard developed by the WiFi Alliance.
In FIG. 1A, an infrastructure network 10 includes an access point (AP) 12 and a plurality of client stations STA-1 14-1, . . . , and STA-n 14-n (collectively STAs 14). The AP 12 and the STAs 14 form a basic service set (BSS) having a BSS identifier (BSSID). The AP 12 transmits beacons to the STAs 14, where each beacon includes the BSSID. Each STA 14 communicates with the AP 12 using the BSSID. A plurality of interconnected BSSs is called an extended service set (ESS).
In FIG. 1B, an ad-hoc network 20 includes, for example, three client stations STA-1 22-1, STA-2 22-2, and STA-3 22-3 (collectively STAs 22). Although three STAs 22 are shown, the ad-hoc network 20 can include more or less than three STAs 22. The STAs 22 form an independent BSS (IBSS) having a BSSID. Each STA 22 can communicate with any of the other STAs 22 without an AP. Each STA 22 listens for a beacon and can transmit a beacon if none of the other STAs 22 transmits a beacon. The beacon includes the BSSID.
In FIG. 1C, a mesh network 30 includes network devices device-1 32-1, device-2 32-2, . . . , and device-n 32-n (collectively devices 32). Each device 32 has a unique ID and can transmit beacons that include the unique ID.
In FIG. 1D, a WiFi direct peer-to-peer (P2P) network 40 includes network devices that communicate without an AP. The network devices use signaling mechanisms of the infrastructure network 10. Each network device is capable of operating as an AP or a STA. When two network devices (e.g., AP/STA 42-1 and 42-2) discover each other, the two network devices negotiate a mode of operation. One network device (e.g., AP/STA 42-1) can operate as a group owner, which is essentially an AP, while the other network device (e.g., AP/STA 42-2) can operate as a STA, or vice versa.